DC Fans Think This Suicide Squad Character Is About To Return From the Dead

August 24, 2025, 8:45pm

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Peacemaker season 2 episode 1, “The Ties That Grind.”] “I don’t want to be a joke anymore,” Chris Smith (John Cena) says in the new season of The Suicide Squad spinoff Peacemaker. “This is all I’ve ever wanted, to be a real hero.” But when the jingoistic mercenary had a shot at heroism in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad do-over — which sent Smith to Corto Maltese with the equally expendable Bloodsport (Idris Elba), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) — Peacemaker instead ended up killing a hero: Task Force X commanding officer Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman).

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Under orders from Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to cover up US government involvement with Project Starfish and the alien conqueror Starro, Peacemaker killed Col. Flag when he attempted to leak the information to the press. Bloodsport then took out Peacemaker, and the rest of Task Force X went off-mission to heroically save Corto Maltese from Starro.

Although he’s since saved the planet from another alien threat, Chris believes there can be no redemption in his world and escapes to a parallel dimension where the Peacemaker is part of a crime-fighting trio with his father (Robert Patrick) and brother (David Denman). On this other Earth, the heroic Parallel Peacemaker is the ex of Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) — Chris’ unrequited love in his dimension — who we learn is currently seeing a “jarhead.”

Fans think that might be Flag Jr., who is dead in the DCU but could be alive in the parallel dimension. (While “jarhead” is a term reserved for Marines, it’s possible that Parallel Rick Flag Jr. served in the United States Marine Corps instead of the Army.) If the Smith family can be the heroic Top Trio in this parallel dimension, it stands to reason that Peacemaker never went to prison, was never recruited to the Suicide Squad, and never killed Flag Jr.

RICK FLAG JR. (LEFT) WITH TASK FORCE X IN THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021)

“I’m guessing the ‘Jarhead’ in that alternate dimension could be Rick Flag Jr,” one fan shared on X. Another took the fan theory a step further, writing, “Alternate Earth Harcourt is currently with some jarhead, so what are the chances of it being Rick [Flag] Jr.? That would be big for Chris, not to mention for [Flag] Sr. Something that connects them, something Chris regrets and [Flag] hates him for.”

Peter Sollett, who directed the Gunn-scripted “Need I Say Door,” revealed Kinnaman might return in a 2024 Instagram post tagging the actor alongside the Peacemaker cast.

When Kinnaman was asked about a potential role in Peacemaker season 2 in an interview pegged to his movie The Silent Hour, the Suicide Squad star replied, “I don’t know what to say. That’s ridiculous. I would never! I would never be on a show like that. It’s not what I do.” (Hint, hint.)

Do you think Rick Flag Jr. is alive in the alternate dimension? Will Kinnaman be back? Post your thoughts below. New episodes of Peacemaker season 2 premiere Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO Max.